Melat Kiros was born in Ethiopia in 1997, the year Diana DeGette arrived in Congress. On Tuesday, the 29-year-old democratic socialist beat her in Colorado’s Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District. DeGette, 68, had served 15 terms.
The Associated Press called the race for Kiros. The Denver-centered district is solidly Democratic, so her win all but ensures her election in November, when she will face Republican Christy Peterson.
“We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment,” Kiros told backers late Tuesday. “We believe that fundamental change can, and will, happen if we fight for it.”
From law firm to Congress
Kiros graduated from the University of Notre Dame law school in 2022. A year later she wrote a blog post rejecting claims that law students who protested Israel’s counterattack after 7 October were antisemitic. The New York law firm where she worked, Sidley Austin, fired her when she refused to remove it. She then went into politics.
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats endorsed her. Her platform includes Medicare for All, universal childcare and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has backed Medicare for all and abolishing ICE herself, which left age and generation as much of the contrast between them.
Money flowed late. Drop Site reported that super PACs funded by AIPAC and big tech donors put roughly $2 million behind DeGette on the eve of the primary. Kiros won anyway.
Israel and the campaign’s sharpest exchanges
Kiros made US support for Israel a central issue. She told Colorado Public Radio that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and called for an arms embargo. DeGette opposes sending offensive arms to Israel, she told the station, but she said she believes Israel has a right to exist and defend itself.
DeGette’s campaign also attacked remarks Kiros made in a recent interview. Asked by 9News about a 2025 firebombing of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Kiros declined to say whether she thought antisemitism motivated it. “I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” she said. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.” She also said she viewed the 9/11 attacks as “inevitable” for the United States, “in that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East.”
Other Colorado results
In the race to succeed term-limited Governor Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser edged out Senator Michael Bennet, the AP reported. Weiser had accused Bennet of not taking a hard enough line against Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees. Bennet’s campaign drew nearly $3 million in support from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In the state’s most competitive House district, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, a progressive, defeated a more moderate Democrat and will face Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. Evans is considered vulnerable, and the seat is among a handful that could decide control of the House.
Senator John Hickenlooper beat back a challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales and will face Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley in November.
The result followed a week of upsets in New York, where voters unseated two Democratic incumbents. Justice Democrats said it has won six Democratic primaries this cycle. Days after the New York contests, more than a dozen centrist Democrats signed an open letter saying “we are capitalist, not socialist.”
Sources
- Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeats 15-term incumbent in Colorado House primary
- Another Blow to Democratic Establishment as Melat Kiros Unseats 30-Year Incumbent in Colorado | Common Dreams
